Teaching article
Simplify a route map without deleting what the robot needs
Keep information needed for navigation and omit irrelevant decoration.
A detailed scene may include colours and decorations irrelevant to navigation. Remove those selectively, then ask whether another reader can still solve the route using the information that remains.
Identify the task. Select useful landmarks. Draw a simplified map.
Shelf colour may be irrelevant when only blocked squares affect the route.
Useful abstraction depends on the task
Ask whether another person can still complete the route using the simplified map. Useful abstraction removes detail without removing essential information.
Omitted information depends on purpose. What must remain for success?
Compare two map versions.
Resources
- Draw the Robot’s Grid Route – Open-Ended Drawing Worksheet — Use the route drawing as a spatial planning prompt; add your command key separately.
Further reading
- CS Unplugged — Kidbots and algorithm activities
- Australian Curriculum Version 9 — Technologies overview
Read next
- Two-state cards need a shared convention
- Trace a program through its intermediate states
- A card machine connects an input, a rule and an output
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